Alchemists of Human Nature

This is the first book-length study of Modernist utopias of the mind. Pietikainen examines the psychodynamic writings of Otto Gross, C G Jung, Wilhelm Reich and Erich Fromm. After they broke from Freud and orthodox psychoanalysis, Pietikainen argues, utopianism became increasingly important to the fundamental ambitions of all four thinkers. He shows how Gross's Matriarchal Communism, Jung's Archetypal Cosmos, Reich's Orgonomic Functionalism and Fromm's Socialist Humanism were attempts to reshape social structures and human relations by conquering the Unconscious. Pietikainen places the 'utopian impulse' with the historical context of the large, violent socio-political narratives of the early twentieth century. This innovative interdisciplinary book contributes to ongoing scholarly and professional discussions about the historicity versus the universality of human nature.